Alan Johnson: On 17 March 2009 the Healthcare Commission, the independent health regulator, published its comprehensive report into the severe failings in emergency care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and mid 2008. It was a catalogue of appalling management and failures at every level for which I apologised on behalf of the Government and the NHS in my oral statement to the House the next day.
	I announced at the same time a range of measures, including two swift reviews into the circumstances at Mid Staffordshire to be led by Professor Sir George Alberti, National Clinical Director for Emergency Care and Dr David Colin-Thomé, National Clinical Director for Primary Care.
	Professor Alberti has looked at the hospital's procedures for emergency admissions and treatment and its progress against the recommendations in the Healthcare Commission's report. In addition, he looked at other related areas of work, including the quality of care issues highlighted in the report in relation to the medical admission wards 10, 11 and 12.
	Dr Colin-Thomé looked into the circumstances surrounding the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust prior to the Healthcare Commission's investigation to learn lessons about how the primary care trust and strategic health authority, within the commissioning and performance management systems that they operate, failed to expose what was happening in this hospital.
	Those two reports were submitted me on 29 April and we are today placing copies in the Library together with the Government's response.
	The trust and the Government have accepted all of the recommendations of these reports.
	The new Health and Social Care regulator, the Care Quality Commission will, together with Monitor and the PCT, take stock with the trust after three months. The CQC will do a follow-up review in six months. Monitor, the independent regulator for FTs, will hold monthly meetings with the trust to ensure it implements all of the recommendations.
	The NHS chief executive David Nicholson will be writing to NHS organisations to bring these reports to their attention and asking them to ensure they implement all of the recommendations that are relevant to them. Monitor will be writing in similar terms to foundation trusts.
	The Healthcare Commission report identified severe failings at Stafford Hospital. While much has been done to rectify these, the two reports indicate that work still needs to be done to ensure quality of care at the hospital reaches the highest standard. Swift and decisive action is being taken to ensure that is the case. Stafford hospital was exceptional, not typical, but all those working in the NHS can learn from this experience so that such events do not occur again elsewhere.